Thursday, October 1, 2015

The Secretariat of HIH Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia announced the death of his uncle Prince Friedrich Wilhelm on September 29, 2015.

Born in 1939, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm was the firstborn child of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia and of his wife Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia. The baby was born in Berlin on February 10. War having started later tat year, Louis Ferdinand became concerned over his family's safety. He later relocated to Eastern Prussia, where at Schloß Cadinen the family found peace and quiet. In fact, Kira Kirillovna gave birth to two of her children while there.

When the Red Army broke through German defenses, Louis Ferdinand and Kira migrated westward and reached Bad Kissingen, where they lived for a short while. Eventually, they moved to the vicinity of Bremen, where they lived permanently.

Friedrich Wilhelm's parents hoped that their son would make a remarkable dynastic marriage, thus fulfilling his duty as the future Head of the Royal House of Prussia. Unfortunately, he was to disappoint his parents.

In August 1967, much to the distress of his parents, Friedrich Wilhelm married Waltraud Freydag (1940-2010). The marriage, for obvious reasons, was considered morganatic. The following Spring, Friedrich Wilhelm and Waltraud welcomed their only son, Philipp (who is now a Protestant minister). Sadly, a little over two weeks after her eldest child's unconventional marriage, Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna suffered a massive heart attack while visiting her brother Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich at his home in St. Briac. There were those who blame Kira's untimely death on her wayward son. Whichever the reason, her death was a terrible loss to Prince Louis Ferdinand, who was devoted to Kira. He never remarried and survived his wife until his death in 1994.

Much like most of his brothers, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm worked in several industries without truly achieving much. It was as if the legacy he rejected pursued him the rest of his life.

Marriage to Waltraud eventually collapsed and the couple divorced in 1971. Five years later, Friedrich Wilhelm remarried, his second wife being Ehrengard von Reden. This was also considered a morganatic union. They had three children (Friedrich Wilhelm, Viktoria Luise and Joachim). Unfortunately, this marriage also ended in divorce early in 2004. By then, Friedrich Wilhelm was already involved with Sibylle Kretschmer, whom he married promptly and as soon as his divorce was official. Sibylle survives he husband.

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm is notable for the various books he authored about his family. He is also, perhaps less notable, for the long, and failed, legal action he started against his nephew Georg Friedrich. Friedrich Wilhelm and his late brother Michael wanted to regain control of the family's fortune, which they had forsaken upon marrying morganatically during their father's tenure of headship of house. Of course, neither prince dared start such an action during their father's lifetime. They would not have dared do so. But the moment their nephew succeeded, they lost little time in heading to the courts. Luckily for the current Head of House Prussia, the German courts sided with him and in detriment of his uncles.

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia is survived by his third wife, four children and seven grandchildren.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

It is with the deepest sadness that I personally communicate to all our readers the untimely death of a dear friend, Alexandra, Duchess of Croÿ.

She was born at Schloß Sünching on July 7, 1960, the daughter of Serafim Miloradovich and of his wife Baroness Agnes von Hoenning O'Carroll. Alexandra's maternal grandfather was Baron Zdenko Hoenning O'Carroll, whose second wife was Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria (1917-2004). Due to this connection, Alexandra and her sisters were raised in close contact with members of the Royal Family of Bavaria. Hence, it came as no surprise that she eventually caught the eye of Hereditary Prince Rudolf of Croÿ, eldest son of Duke Carl and of his wife, Princess Gabriele of Bavaria, one of the many daughters of Crown prince Rupprecht and of his second wife, the former Princess Antonia of Luxembourg. Alexandra's mother-in-law and step-grandmother were first cousins!

Rudolf and Alexandra were married at Schloß Sünching in October 1987. Two years later she gave birth to their first child, Carl-Philipp. Eventually, five other children came along: Xenia, Marc, Heinrich, Alexander and Anastasia. The family lived at Merfeld, near Düllmen. There they built a happy and loving environment in which their children thrived. Alexandra, who was very gregarious, loved having a house full of guests, and in so doing she proved to be an amazing hostess. From the wines she served to the food regaled on us her guests, not to mention the enjoyable repertoire before, during and after dinner, visiting the couple will remain one of my most cherished memories.

I first met Alexandra many years ago at her mother-in-law's home, just a stone's throw from the main house at Merfeld. Princess Gabriele had sent me an invitation to join her and Duke Carl for dinner during an upcoming trip to Europe. We were four at lunch on the day I visited: the Dukes of Croÿ, Hereditary Princess Alexandra and me. During lunch, Alexandra was very interested in my work. Once we finished lunch, she invited me to her home, where we spent hours talking away. From then on, we remained frequent correspondents and I eventually became a guest a her home. One time she even sent to me a paper that one of her sons had written for school. "Please, Arturo, can you double check it, I want to make sure that it is all correct," she said. The paper was excellent and I believe we even published it in the magazine!

My last visit was last year and I never expected that it would be the last time I saw her.

I was shocked when I read that she had died yesterday. I am still in quite a bit of a shock, besides terribly saddened at the loss of such an amazingly joyful friend. Her zest for life was unmatched!

Earlier today, I heard from two of her sons. The funeral will be on October 3 at St. Jakobus Church near Düllmen.

Although I will likely be unable to join them, I want to render testimony to the life of a wonderful woman ... I will miss her very, very much. I hope God provides her dear husband and lovely children with the solace and comfort they need as they experience this terrible loss.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The long-awaited reminiscences of the Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha went to the printer yesterday!

I did it my way ... Memoirs of Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha promises to become one of those books that one "must" have in one's royalty collection. Candid, insightful and filled with family detail, the book is simply fantastic!

The book is 248 pages and has more than 300 photos, countless of them from the private collections of Prince Andreas!

We expect to present the book at our yearly conference in The Netherlands, Royal Gatherings in The Hague, hosted by EUROHISTORY and Hoogstraten English Bookstore. The conference is on November 7-8, 2015 and we expect to count with Prince Andreas' participation!

We sent the magazine's PDF file to the printer in early July. They were expected to send the magazines to us by early August!

Apparently, they had some major press malfunction and they got ridiculously backed up. Not just with Issue 3-2015, but also with the next book, ROYAL EXILES IN CANNES. It has been quite frustrating, but it is what it is!

Issue CV (3-2015) finally shipped to us yesterday. We expect it here by Friday and will begin mailing it immediately!

ROYAL EXILES IN CANNES is expected to ship on September 29 and arrive here some time the week of October 5, a full two months late!

We are busy with the next book, "I did it my way ... " – THE MEMOIRS OF PRINCE ANDREAS OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA, which we released to the printer yesterday and also with Issue CVI (August 2015), which is releasing to the printer in a week!